Maintain a Natural Lawn

A healthy lawn or landscape provides ecological benefits for air, soil and water quality as well as promoting a psychological “good feeling” effect on people. It prevents erosion, reduces noise, provides wildlife habitat, and creates a cooling effect during warm weather. How can you plant or maintain a natural lawn at your home or business?

For your home:

• Recycle lawn clippings by leaving them on the lawn after mowing or put clippings in a compost pile.
• Select the appropriate grass species for Minnesota. 
• Water during the cooler times of day – early morning or evening.
• Use rain sensors connected to irrigation systems if you have such systems.
• Use natural organic fertilizers such as Milorganite, commercially prepared manure, grass clippings, phosphate rock, or potash.
• Ask your lawn service to provide organic lawn treatments.
• Plant pollinator-friendly gardens in lawn areas that are difficult to maintain slopes, for example.
• Choose to think of your lawn as healthy rather than perfect.

For your business or institution:

• Research the University of Minnesota webinars on pesticide safety and certification and growing eco-healthy turf for those who maintain their own landscapes or customers’ sites. 
• Use salt-tolerant turfgrass mixtures developed by University of Minnesota researchers in partnership with MNDOT to conserve water.

• Plant pollinator-friendly native plants in pesticide-free areas on commercial property which contributes to the diversity of life as pollinators are vital to our food system.    

• Use rain sensors for landscape irrigation to conserve water.

• Use organic fertilizers such as Milorganite, commercially prepared manure, phosphate rock, or potash.